1 Enoch 89:5 states that cattle drowned and verse 6 adds that “bulls and elephants and camels and asses” also drowned. However, we must be careful for this passage is in the Animal Apocalypse where animals symbolize people. This is seen in 89:1 where one of the bulls became a man and built the ark, obviously as a man, Noah, and not as a bull. Then three other bulls, clearly representing his three sons, joined him on the ark.
Regarding the “elephants and camels and asses” mentioned in verse 6, these same animals were first introduced in 86:4 as being clear references to the Nephilim, the product of fallen stars who became bulls and conceived the “elephants and camels and asses” from cows. Regarding this verse, one commentator said that:
The names of these three animals in Aramaic are puns on “Nephilim,” “Giants” (gibborim), and “Elioud,” the three types mentioned in Enoch 7:2 (Milik 240). (Olson, Daniel. Enoch: A New Translation. 2004. 190)Another commentator elaborated:
The particular species may be used as symbols because of the similarities between the two sets of Aramaic words: pilin (“elephants”) = neplin; gamilin (“camels”) = gibborin (“giants”); ‘arodin (“wild asses”) = “Elioud.” Footnote: See Milik, Enoch, 240. (Nickelsburg, George. 1 Enoch 1 Hermeneia Commentary. 2001. 373)Milik’s book is The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments from the Caves of Qumran. (1976)
With that said, I’m afraid that the scholarly consensus, and the text itself, does not readily support a literal identification with actual animals, however tempting to make such a literal identification may be.
